Clarendon House Publications

24/12/2025

It’s probably true to say that within every successful story is a progression from Light to Dark. Most stories (Comedies and Epics or adventure stories) then have what Tolkien called a ‘eucatastrophe’ at the end in which the darkness is turned into light, but some (Tragedies and Ironies) leave readers in that darkness, for them to make of it what they will…

It’s probably true to say that within every successful story is a progression from Light to Dark. Most stories (Comedies and Epics or adventure stories) then have what Tolkien called a ‘eucatastrophe’ at the end in which the darkness is turned into light, but some (Tragedies and Ironies) leave...

23/12/2025

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23/12/2025

Would you like some quick, simple tips on how to build a convincing and attractive character arc for a story you are perhaps writing or have in mind?

Would you like some quick, simple tips on how to build a convincing and attractive character arc for a story you are perhaps writing or have in mind? In an earlier article, I looked at how to develop a powerful plot in four steps. In brief, this was a matter of coming up with some kind of disastrous...

22/12/2025

I was recently asked whether or not it was a good idea to combine stories - in other words, to take an existing story and in some way join it with another one, rather than let it stand alone as a work in its own right. There are examples of this in the world of literature - the one that immediately comes to mind is Tolkien’s children’s tale The Hobbit, which quickly became linked with, and then very much a part of, the complete world of other stories he had been working on for decades prior to its publication. It’s a fascinating subject and one which I probably can't do full justice to without further study, but here are some initial thoughts…

I was recently asked whether or not it was a good idea to combine stories - in other words, to take an existing story and in some way join it with another one, rather than let it stand alone as a work in its own right. There are examples of this in the world of literature - the one that immediately....

20/12/2025

As a quick example, to show certain differences between writing styles, let’s take a look at an excerpt from Robert E. Howard’s tale of Conan the Barbarian, called 'The Thing in the Crypt', and part of The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway…

As a quick example, to show certain differences between writing styles, let’s take a look at an excerpt from Robert E. Howard’s tale of Conan the Barbarian, called 'The Thing in the Crypt', and part of The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway. Howard’s stories of Conan belonged to the genre kno...

19/12/2025

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19/12/2025

How well do you know your protagonist?

If your central characters are like many, you may have developed ideas about their desires, values, beliefs, and opinions. You may have even drawn up personal codes for them that dictate to some degree whether they are being ‘good’ people. If there is any one thing you can do as a writer, surely it is to establish who your main characters are, you might think.

The truth is, although this is common practice amongst writers, most of this is extraneous. You don’t need much of any of this kind of thing. What interests readers more than any fleshed-out code of conduct or value system for any invented character is how the character violates their own codes…

How well do you know your protagonist? If your central characters are like many, you may have developed ideas about their desires, values, beliefs, and opinions. You may have even drawn up personal codes for them that dictate to some degree whether they are being ‘good’ people. If there is any o...

18/12/2025

NEW RELEASE FROM CLARENDON HOUSE PUBLICATIONS!
Poetica # 27: An Inner Circle Writers' Group Poetry Anthology
https://www.clarendonhousebooks.com/anthologies

There is a common assumption among poets and readers generally that ‘There is no market for poetry.’ I hear this regularly.
This idea arises because, in the big world of publishing, poetry is seen to be a private, highly subjective affair which correspondingly does not sell well. Personal tastes, obscurity of form, and lack of poetic craft all add up to poetry being ‘shoved into the corner’ and usually only self-published or produced as a vanity piece.
This is a shame. There are a great many good poets out there: thousands of voices whose passionate visions of reality are not finding a proper outlet. Without channels to transmit these visions to readers, they can eventually fall silent.
The effort of this series of Poetica anthologies is to contribute to the creation of a market for poetry throughout the calendar year. The idea is that, by providing a regular, published venue for poetry from all over the world, poems as media for the communication of important and heartfelt ideas and reflections will gain in respect and become more widely acknowledged. Voices will be heard; channels will be opened.

Poetica # 27 features the work of DJ Elton, Michelle Chermaine Ramos, Jacek Wilkos, Hanna Biali, Tony Fyler, Craig Richard Tickner, Sultana Raza, Trish Parkinson, Peter Kenny, David Painter, Gabriella Balcom, Fhen M., Afshan Aqil , Debby Hackbarth, Kerri Jesmer, Giuseppina Marino Leyland, Jim Bates, the Birch Twins, Tim Law, Linda M. Crate, Mike Turner, Gareth Macready, Aminath Neena, Allan Edward Tierney, Justin Wiggins, Jan McCulloch, Anahit Arustamyan, Suranjit Gain, Linda Sparks, John Grey, Dawn DeBraal, Catherine A. MacKenzie, John Drudge, Kelli J Gavin and Michal Reiben.
Grab your paperback or Kindle version here:
https://www.clarendonhousebooks.com/anthologies

18/12/2025

I think it’s peculiar that we read books usually long before we get to know anything about their authors. Sometimes we never find out anything significant about the person behind the story. In most cases, who the author is probably has little significance in the long run to the impact of the tale itself, and the biography of the author shouldn’t be the focus of a study of the story, but it still strikes me as odd that we are quite prepared to take on board entire manuscripts in the form of works of fiction before we have the faintest idea of ‘where they have been’, as it were…

I think it’s peculiar that we read books usually long before we get to know anything about their authors. Sometimes we never find out anything significant about the person behind the story. In most cases, who the author is probably has little significance in the long run to the impact of the tale ...

17/12/2025

It’s hard to recollect much about it now, and I was more or less unaware of it then, but for half of my life the future of the world lay under a nuclear shadow…

It’s hard to recollect much about it now, and I was more or less unaware of it then, but for half of my life the future of the world lay under a nuclear shadow. From the Allies development of the atomic bomb in 1945, and its subsequent acquisition by the Soviet Union soon afterwards, the entire pl...

16/12/2025

Let’s assume you’ve read my book How Stories Really Work - shameless plug - and that you have your characters and plot sorted out so that the basic shape and flavour of the story is there. How else can you improve things?
https://www.clarendonhousebooks.com/single-post/4-ways-to-add-value-to-a-story-with-some-dickens-as-an-example-1

15/12/2025

If you were to sit down right now and write, what would you write about?

For those of you who have a work ongoing, you might simply want to continue with the next scene or portion that needs writing; for those of you who harbour a desire to be a writer but who haven’t yet made it happen to any degree, you might sit there and ponder what to do until time sweeps the opportunity away. So for the moment, whether you are writing something already or haven’t started, put things aside and look at a piece of blank paper or a page on a screen and think about where you would start a new work.

This is another unusual approach, which you can use or dismiss as you see fit, but one way of getting started would be this…

If you were to sit down right now and write, what would you write about? For those of you who have a work ongoing, you might simply want to continue with the next scene or portion that needs writing; for those of you who harbour a desire to be a writer but who haven’t yet made it happen to any deg...